Event Comment: [Miss Molini is identified by MS annotation on Kemble playbill. She had 1st appeared at this theatre on 17 Feb. 1798.] Receipts: #194 7s. 6d. (133.4.6; 58.6.0; 2.17.0)

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. Doors, as 21 Nov. Receipts: #464 14s. (461.4; 3.10)

Event Comment: [Miss Stephens is identified in MS list in Kemble playbill s of new performers for this season. Afterpiece in place of The Liar, advertised on playbill of 28 Nov.] Receipts: #102 17s. 7d. (27.8.1; 74.15.6; 0.14.0)

Event Comment: [Afterpiece in place of The Shipwreck, advertised on playbill of 29 Nov.] Receipts: #150 7s. 6d. (98.6.0; 48.14.6; 3.7.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Permission of the Proprietor of the Theatre Royal, Hay-Market. Receipts: #168 13s. (97.0.6; 69.9.6; 2.3.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; C 5, by Richard Cumberland, 1st published (without assignment of parts) in his Posthumous Dramatic Works, 1813, Vol. I, as The Passive Husband. Prologue and Epilogue by the author (Thomas Holcroft, Life, ed. Elbridge Colby, 1925, II, 205)]. Receipts: #253 8s. 6d. (189.12.6; 60.7.6; 3.8.6)

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. Doors, &c. as 21 Nov. Receipts: #470 5s. 6d. (466.11.6; 3.14.0)

Event Comment: Ballet: 1st time these 2 years. Receipts: #188 14s. (109.5.; 77.3.6; 2.5.0)

Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill retains Miss Biggs, but "Biggs, of Drury-lane Theatre, died yesterday [actually not until 9 Dec.]. The grief of his sister on the occasion prevented her performing in Cumberland's new comedy last night; in consequence of which the part of Matilda was read by Miss Heard" (Morning Herald, 8 Dec.).] Receipts: #158 0s. 6d.(98.0.0; 56.11.6; 3.9.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; C 5, by Frederick Reynolds. Prologue by Counsellor Moore (Monthly Mirror, Dec. 1798, p. 368). Epilogue by John Taylor (see text)]: With new Scenes and Dresses. "Lewis's Gossamer is one of those characters which no actor could play but himself, because no man has that happy freedom and facility, that fashionable playfulness and spirit, so joyous, free, and unrelaxing, which distinguish all his performances of this nature" (Monthly Mirror, ibid). Morning Chronicle, 8 Mar. 1799: This Day is published Laugh When You Can (2s.). Receipts: #268 10s. (263.17; 4.13)

Event Comment: [Afterpiece in place of Albert and Adelaide, advertised on playbill of 8 Dec.] Receipts: #319 14s. 6d. (310.2.6; 9.12.0)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; MD 3, by Samuel Birch, adapted from Camille; ou, Le Souterrain, by Benoit Joseph Marsollier des Vivetieres, and from Les Victimes Cloitrees, by Jacques Marie Boutet de Monvel; the songs written by Thomas John Dibdin. Larpent MS 1236; not published. The playbill states that this was "Taken from the German," but London Chronicle, 12 Dec., says that its source is the same as that of The Captive of Spilburg (see dl, 14 Nov.). An examination of the MSS of these two pieces (Larpent 1230 and 1236) proves that such is unmistakably the case]: With entire new Scenes, Machinery, Dresses & Decorations. The Music composed and selected by Steibelt and Attwood. The Action of the Chorusaes, Finales, &c. under the Direction of Farley, and the Action of the Overture by Bologna Jun. A new Descriptive Overture, composed by Steibelt, on a Plan never before introduced on the English Stage, accompanied by Action. "The overture is...nothing more than music adapted to pantomime; and, in the present instance, the dumb shew is an unnecessary anticipation of the procession with which the piece opens" (Monthly Mirror, Dec. 1798, p. 369). The Scenery painted by Richards, Phillips, Lupino, Hollogan, Blackmore, &c. The Dresses by Dick and Mrs Egan. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Receipts: #338 17s. 6d. (325.14.6; 13.3.0)

Event Comment: [Afterpiece in place of The Captive of Spilburg, advertised on playbill of 11 Dec.] Receipts: #195 14s. (141.18; 52.3; 1.13)

Event Comment: [In afterpiece the playbill retains Fawcett, but "Dibdin Jun. undertook the part of the Jew, at short notice, on account of the indisposition of Fawcett" (Morning Herald, 14 Dec.).] Receipts: #228 0s. 6d. (223.5.6; 4.15.0)

Event Comment: "Mr T. has performed in the Norwich Company. [He] did not appear to us to possess a single requisite for the profession of an actor...We observed that the characters of Lenox and Rosse were doubled [i.e. combined]-a resource, at all times, disreputable to the theatre and to the manager" (Monthly Mirror, Dec. 1798, pp. 369-70). Receipts: #299 15s. 6d. (293.8.6; 6.7.0)

Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill retains Mrs Pope, but she "was suddenly taken ill on Monday evening, in consequence of which the part of that interesting and favourite actress, in Reynolds's new comedy, was undertaken at a few minutes notice by Mrs Litchfield" (Morning Herald, 19 Dec.).] Receipts: #274 10s. 6d. (265.5.0; 9.5.6)

Event Comment: [Afterpiece in place of Katharine and Petruchio, advertised on playbill of 17 Dec.] Receipts: #197 1s. (122.9.0; 73.3.6; 1.8.6)

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. Receipts: #449 13s. (442.17; 6.16)

Event Comment: "When Euphrasia stabs Dionysius, she exclaims, 'A daughter's arm, fell monster, strikes the blow, Yes, first she strikes...' All, or at least the greatest part of this seems to be intended to precede the blow; and yet probability requires that the blow of a woman that kills an armed warrior should be unforeseen and sudden. Mrs Siddons felt the force of this. She strikes Dionysius without speaking a word, and repeats the passage over him as he lies on the ground" (Monthly Mirror, July 1800, p. 41). Receipts: #154 11s. 6d. (90.17.6; 62.8.0; 1.6.0)

Event Comment: Afterpiece: By permission of the Proprietor of the Theatre Royal, Hay-market. Receipts: #162 13s. 6d. (84.17.0; 75.19.6; 1.17.0)

Event Comment: [Afterpiece in place of Katharine and Petruchio, advertised on playbill of 21 Dec.] Receipts: #146 2s. 6d. (87.15.6; 55.18.0; 2.9.0)

Event Comment: [Mainpiece in place of Lover's Vows, advertised on playbill of 21 Dec.] The Public are respectfully acquainted that the new Pantomime, the Machinery, Scenery, and Decorations of which have been in preparation the whole Summer, and which was intended to have been produced at Christmas, is on account of the extraordinary demand for Places for all the new Pieces now in representation, obliged to be postponed for a short time [see 29 Jan. 1799]. Receipts: #187 10s. 6d. (180.7.6; 7.3.0)

Event Comment: "In many instances [C. Kemble] mistook rant for animation" (True Briton, 11 Jan. 1799). [For the naming of the characters in mainpiece, as they were called originally, see 23 Feb. 1792.] Receipts: #228 4s. 6d. (185.3.0; 42.16.6; 0.5.0)

Event Comment: [Afterpiece in place of The Captive of Spilburg, advertised on playbill of 27 Dec.] Receipts: #133 10s. 6d. (99.1.0; 32.10.6; 1.19.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time: MD 5, by James Boaden]: With new Musick [by Michael Kelly], Dresses, and Decorations. [Scenery by Capon (Theatre Notebook, XIX, 14).] Morning Chronicle, 16 Jan. 1799: This Day is published Aurelio and Miranda (2s.). Receipts: #271 16s. (218.15.0; 51.19.6; 1.1.6)